This invention relates generally to Apparatus and Methods for making solid products and more particularly to an Apparatus and Method for making single colored and preferably multi-sectioned and multi-colored solid products of predetermined geometric and other shapes for use as pancake make-up, eye-shadow, lipstick, paints, and the like types of products which can be mounted in compacts, paint boxes, and other containers generally used for cosmetics, artists supplies, and in other industries, and hobbies, where coloring materials are required.
It is well known in the cosmetic and paint industries that single colored slurry mixtures of cosmetics or paints can be poured into a sized, shaped, and formed casting mold and permitted to harden therein to provide with the casting mold a unitary product that can be mounted in openings or internal support members formed in a suitable compact, other cosmetic container, or in an artist's paint box.
This hardened solid product particularly in the case of the finer cosmetic materials and paints cannot be removed from the casting mold in which it is formed because it is too fragile and will disintegrate. Thus, it has been found to be impractical to handle the solid product apart from the casting mold in the manufacture of containers in which this type of product is mounted. Additionally, the product which includes the casting mold increases the cost of manufacture of the final compacts and other containers which include these products and are offered in the commercial marketplace to the ultimate users.
Additionally, the casting molds take up valuable space and mandate the formation of supporting devices or other structures in the container adapted to receive these unitary products.
The present invention seeks to provide an Apparatus and Method for forming a single or multicolored product having a predetermined size and shape which can overcome these and other problems in the prior art.
The product in accordance with the present invention, in the case of single colored product, is formed from a slurry mixture having a single color which is poured into an apparatus having a sized and shaped, generally disposable casting mold, and a uniformly latticed grid mounted in the casting mold. The slurry mixture is permitted to harden about the latticed grid by evaporation or removal of the solvent used to establish the slurry, and then removed with the latticed grid member to provide the finished single colored unitary solid product in the desired shape.
The product in accordance with the present invention, in the case of a multi-section and multi-colored solid product, is formed from a plurality of slurry mixtures each having a different color and texture which are alternatively and selectively poured into separately formed sections of an Apparatus having a sized and shaped generally disposable casting mold, a sized and shaped latticed grid mounted in the casting mold having a predetermined number of grid sections, separated from each other by extended dividing blade slots, and removable and replaceable dividing blade means operatively connectible in the extended dividing blade slots in the latticed grid are so operatively associated with the latticed grid and the casting mold that by positioning, removal, and repositioning of the dividing blade means, sized and shaped grid sections are formed into which one of the respective slurry mixtures are alternatively and selectively poured, permitted to set or harden by evaporation or removal of the solvent used to establish the slurry, and then the multi-sectioned and multi-colored solid member is removed with the latticed grid as a unitary member to provide the finished solid product in the desired size and shape.